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Long-lived Nadine may spin into tropical storm record book

Wednesday’s tropical outlook shows Nadine and a new system east of the Leeward Islands. (Credit: NHC)

The National Hurricane Center summed up persistent Tropical Storm Nadine on Wednesday morning, noting in its discussion headline that the system was still “hanging around” over the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean.

Nadine has been around, in one form or another, since the morning of Sept. 11, when it was classified as Tropical Depression 14. NHC forecasters are expecting it to meander in the Atlantic at least through Monday, when it would be close to three weeks old.

That puts it in some rare company. The 1899 Puerto Rico Hurricane holds the all-time record of 28 days as a hurricane or tropical storm, 31 days including post-tropical time. In the more modern era, there was Hurricane Ginger in September 1971, which lasted for 27.25 days, according to Hurricane.com.

However, Nadine could end up competing with Hurricane Inga in 1969 (24.75 days); Hurricane Kyle in 2002 (22 days); and hurricanes Carrie (1957) and Inez (1966) at 20.75 days.

Nadine also became the season’s 14th named storm on Sept. 11, and was named Hurricane Nadine on Friday, Sept. 14.

It was downgraded to a tropical storm became post-tropical on Friday, Sept. 21.

The National Hurricane Center stopped issuing advisories the following day. But on Sunday the storm regenerated, and has been moving toward the southwest since then.

On Wednesday morning, Nadine was still alive and well with 45 mph winds, located about 530 miles south-southwest of the Azores. It was expected to strengthen into a 60 mph tropical storm before making an expected turn to the northwest and hitting cooler North Atlantic water.

But some forecast models show the storm getting trapped under high pressure building to the north, and Nadine could still be with us as a named system well into next week. By next Tuesday, Oct. 2, Nadine would be 21 days old.

The NHC was also tracking a new area of disturbed weather 700 miles east-northeast of the Leeward Islands. Forecasters said it had a 10 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone by Friday.

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Rain chances in Palm Beach will range from 30-40 percent through Monday, but forecasters at the National Weather Service in Miami said that a new round of deep tropical moisture could sweep into South Florida next week and set up a wet start to the new month.

Skies will remain partly sunny to mostly cloudy, with highs in the low- to mid-80s.

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Parts of England have been experiencing the most intense September storm in 30 years, according to the BBC. The North of England and portions of Scotland were battling floods. Some residents were in shelters and roads were closed.

Tuesday was the wettest September day on record for some towns, and hundreds of homes were evacuated.